Free Republic

Fidel Castro's rule of nearly five decades split many a Cuban family between exile and solidarity with the communist revolution — including his own. While brother Raul was his closest confidant and successor as president, sister Juana, exiled in south Florida, called Fidel a "monster" to whom she hadn't spoken in more than four decades. Eldest son Fidelito, long Castro's only officially recognized child, was a nuclear scientist in Cuba. Eldest daughter Alina Fernandez, born from an affair with a married socialite who remained on the island decades later, blasted dad on exile radio from Miami. The sprawling Castro clan,...

Hangin' With the Butcher Along with Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his brother Fidel, Raul Castro directly participated in the executions of many hundred "enemies of the revolution" (Raul is the one tying the blindfold on) and was also responsible for ordering or signing off on the murders of thousands more. Some were killed without trial. Others were given trials that lasted minutes. Mercifully, some were allowed Last Rites. Posted by Oakes Spalding at 1:17 AM Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: bad popes, che guevara, communism, cuba, fidel castro, obama, pope francis, raul castro

Live coverage of South American communists.

REPRESENTATIVE RAUL LABRADOR (R-Idaho): Well, there's several things that we need to do. Number one, it was illegal for the President to do this. He has been saying it for the last three years that he did not have the authority to do it and now he changed his mind. (SNIP) And finally, and I think this is the most important part, we can't take the bait from-- from the Democrats. We can't say we're not going to do immigration reform. We need to tell the American people what we're for. And we need to show them the step-by-step approach...

Republican Rep. Raul Labrador on Thursday offered a potential immigration deal to the White House, saying the GOP would agree to loosen penalties on illegal immigrants if President Obama would agree to increase visas for foreigners who work in high-tech fields. Mr. Labrador suggested dropping the penalty period that bars illegal immigrants from reapplying to enter the U.S. legally after being deported, a period that now lasts for between three and 10 years, depending on how long they had first remained in the country illegally.

Rep. Raul Labrador isn’t amused by Speaker John Boehner’s ribbing of fellow Republicans for dragging their feet on immigration reform this year. Labrador (R-Idaho) said in a statement Friday that he was “disappointed” in Boehner’s remarks conveyed back home in Ohio, in which he appeared to theatrically mimic House Republicans and their refusal to take up an immigration overhaul.

The US president, Barack Obama, shook hands with his Cuban opposite number, Raul Castro, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela The handshake between the two historic enemies came as they attended a ceremony in Johannesburg to celebrate the late South African leader's ability to foster reconciliation. The gesture - which comes despite half a century of hostilities - came as Mr Obama made his way to a podium to deliver a speech. It is only the second time ever that a US president has shaken the hands of a Cuban Communist leader. President Bill Clinton was the first to...

Reuters reports that the FBI and other agencies are in the process of investigating multiple threats to Midwest Water Supply Systems. Specifically, the FBI has named Wichita, Kansas as a target, but utility facilities have also been put on alert in other Midwestern cities. (Reuters) The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation learned of the threats in the past two days and has contacted the water supply facilities and law enforcement offices for the municipalities, said Bridget Patton, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in Kansas City, Missouri. Patton declined to discuss the nature of the threats or the number of...

If you're "brave and principled" on never voting for an appropriation bill, but also shelter yourself from any political consequence of this stance by making sure your constituents get all the sweet, sweet Federal Gold their hearts desire, are you really brave or principled? Ron Paul's never really passed any legislation, and hardly ever joins any. For all the claims about him being a fighter and a champion, he never seems to advance the ball. But he does have a rich legislative history, of federal taxpayer-gifted goodies for his voters. No legislation, no actual furtherance of conservative positions, but lots...

Ted Kennedy's KGB Correspondence By Kevin Mooney on 6.22.10 @ 6:08AM Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's self-serving, secret correspondence with Soviet agents during the height of the Cold War included proposals for collaborative efforts designed to undermine official U.S. policy set by Democratic and Republican administrations, KGB documents show. With the media now reporting on the late senator's just released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file, now is an opportune time for a more expansive investigation into Kennedy's KGB contacts. The agency took a keen interest in a 1961 "fact-finding" trip the Massachusetts Democrat took to Mexico and other parts of...

We, the Heads of State and Government of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, member countries of ALBA, consider that the Draft Declaration of the 5th Summit of the Americas is insufficient and unacceptable for the following reasons: - The Declaration does not provide answers to the Global Economic Crisis, even though this crisis constitutes the greatest challenge faced by humanity in the last decades and is the most serious threat of the current times to the welfare of our peoples. - The Declaration unfairly excludes Cuba, without mentioning the consensus in the region condemning the blockade and isolation...

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro said Tuesday that President Obama "misinterpreted" his brother Raul's sentiments toward the United States and bristled at any suggestion Cuba should free political prisoners or reduce official fees on money sent to the island from the U.S. Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations last week, when he said Cuban leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss "everything," including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners on...

(CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a U.S. economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said.We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Cuban President Raúl Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela. The response came days after President Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of American citizens to visit relatives in Cuba as...

Havana - US President Barack Obama's policies on Cuba are only focused on Cuban-Americans, at the expense of residents of the island nation, ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said Friday. In an article criticizing Obama, Castro said that "sooner rather than later, Obama's politics are losing their virginity." "The almost 12 million Cubans inhabiting the island do not interest him," he said. This was Castro's third article in two weeks that criticized Obama. During the US election campaign, the former Cuban president had expressed support for Obama and said he was superior to his Republican rival John McCain "in intelligence...

"As I left Havana earlier this month," writes Dr. Rens Lee, senior fellow at Philadelphia's prestigious Foreign Policy Research Institute, "Cuba was eagerly awaiting the United States' November presidential elections. The buzz around the capital, reportedly from a highly placed source, was that Barack Obama has already talked to Raul Castro by phone."

In their litany of American presidents who met with hostile dictators, supporters of Barack Obama cite John F. Kennedy and his meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961. They leave out how it went. The earnest, young American president wanted to forestall any possibility of misunderstanding and to win Khrushchev’s commitment to the international status quo. The blustery, risk-taking Soviet premier wanted to bludgeon Kennedy into making concessions that would further the Soviet goal of global revolution. With such clashing objectives, the two leaders didn’t exactly hit it off. When Kennedy thought he was being accommodating, Khrushchev...

HAVANA (AP) - President Raul Castro has lifted restrictions on consumer goods and hotel stays, but most Cubans get paid in virtually worthless pesos, which can't buy basic items like toilet paper, let alone a DVD player or poolside mojito cocktails at the Hotel Capri. Nearly everything Cubans want or need must be bought with a separate currency created for tourists and foreigners. So, until the regular peso increases in value, Castro's moves will be bittersweet gestures. The new leader's solution, now the talk of the island: merge the two currencies. But this turns out to be much easier said...

HAVANA - Raul Castro's government opened luxury hotels and resorts to all Cubans Monday, ending a ban despised across the island as "tourist apartheid" and taking another step toward the creation of a consumer economy in the socialist state. ADVERTISEMENT Cuba has made a series of crowd-pleasing announcements in the past few days. Cubans with enough cash will be able to buy computers, DVD players and plasma televisions starting Tuesday, and soon they'll even be able to have their own cell phones — consumer goods only companies and foreigners were previously permitted to buy. But the latest surprise, allowing ordinary...

The Hemisphere: Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.As befits a new dictator seeking to win some popularity, Castro is lifting ownership restrictions for ordinary Cubans on mobile phones, computers, DVD players, even toasters. But unlike the toasters that U.S. banks used to give away, these don't come free. Each of Raul's offerings to buy goods comes with a state-set price most Cubans have no realistic prospect of affording. Average Cuban salaries, minus...

Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.